Hellsinker/Strategy

Spirit Scoring Strategy

General Overview

The biggest factor in earning more Spirits is your STELLA level.

The following [values / objects / behaviors] will change depending on your STELLA.
- Enemy's base Spirit value
- Milking performance (i.e. Inner Spirit Raising and Pooling efficiency)
- UNCHAIN bonus (killing MASTER enemies)
- Amount of needle bullets from enemies (FINELINE)
- Amount of destructible bullets spewed from enemies
- Running Spirits
- Rex Cavalier's (S7 Boss) 5th attack pattern
Even the difference between STELLA 9 and STELLA A is huge. Always try to keep your STELLA at A.
Surviving as long as possible and killing each enemy in the most Spirit efficient way is crucial. Figure out the most efficient way to milk Spirits for every enemy you see.

Routes are mostly thought out by balancing "Survival Consistency" and "Milking".

If you choose to survive, you will lose the opportunity to milk.

If you choose to milk, you will put yourself more at risk to get hit. Everyone has their own comfortable routes, so figure out your best routes based on this.

STELLA Tricks

Most Segments feature a way to increase STELLA rapidly. These are the first things one should learn when aiming for Spirits.

Segment 1 Lead: Repeatedly hitting the invulnerable part of the MONO-WINGs will cause them to drop lots of LUNA Chaff which can be collected for STELLA. Clearing waves quickly will cause more MONO-WINGs to appear.
Segment 1 Behind: Quickly clearing the opening waves will spawn lots of zako whose bullets can be erased for LUNA Chaff. Afterwards, a green STELLA item and two MONO-WINGs appear.
Segment 2 Lead: UNCHAINing the enemies at the beginning and then quickly clearing the following kamikaze zako will produce up to 3 green STELLA items.
Segment 3 Lead: Destroying the tailguns of the two CLIONEs will produce a green STELLA item each. Another appears in the middle at TIMER ~7.
Segment 3 Behind: ZINC-OWLs drop lots of LUNA Chaff when shot at.
Segment 4: Approaching the HONEYCOMBs in SECTOR 03 will cause them to drop a ring of LUNA Chaff. MONO-WINGS appear in SECTORs 05 to 08.
Segment 5: No trick, must be built up gradually with efficient play.
Segment 6: Rapidly hitting one or both of the 1000KNIGHTS while performing the initial graze will accelerate STELLA gain drastically.
Segment 7: Destroying the 6 high-value ORNITHOPTERs at TIMER ~17 will produce up to 6 green STELLA items.
Segment 8: Two green STELLA items appear at the beginning. The STELLA increase over time does not stack with itself, so it's beneficial to wait several seconds between collecting each. Graze the needles fired by the first enemy waves or wait in their SEAL range.

Immortality Bonuses

Gaining Extends in the Immortal state (max lives) gives increasing Spirit bonuses.
Starting value is 80, increasing by 40 each time you Extend after the first Immortality bonus.
- 80, 120, 160, ...
Spirit BREAKTHROUGH is worth 200 + 40 * (current Immortality count)
Kill BREAKTHROUGH is worth 160 + 40 * (current Immortality count)
- These bonuses are a single lump like normal Immortality bonuses; if you're not at maximum lives when the BREAKTHROUGH is achieved, all of the bonus will be lost.
Getting a BREAKTHROUGH will reset your NECESSARY value for Extends, which equates to faster Extends, which means more Immortality bonuses down the line.

FINELINE (grazing)

The player accrues Spirits for each frame that needle bullets are inside the player's grazing radius. (There are a limited number of other grazable bullet types such as purple chains and the S7 boss' wisps)
This grazing is termed FINELINE.

Because grazing is continuous, there is a direct relationship between the size of your graze radius and potential Spirits gained. The size of all the graze radii are as following^[1]:

Character	Bootleg Ghost	When firing main shot	When Suppression active	When Suppression inactive	During Forbidden Shell
Deadliar	Solidstate/Aspirant	2400 units	5600 units	2400 units
	Adept	2400 units	5600 units	5600 units
Fossilmaiden	Any	2500 units		3600 units
Minogame	Solidstate/Aspirant	2400 units	4400 units	2400 units	9600 units
	Adept	2400 units	4400 units	4400 units	9600 units
Kagura	Solidstate/Aspirant	2800 units	2800 units	2800 units
	Adept	2800 units	6400 units	6400 units

Maximizing the intersection of needles and grazebox is the objective. Staying equidistant between as many needles as possible is often better than chasing them to the edge of the screen.
Grazing with Adept is easier as the Suppression Radius becomes unnecessary and you have more control over when it activates.
- Moon Cradle (Kagura1) is forced to graze with the Suppression Radius inactive due to the combination of her autofire ability and the requirement of playing in Adept.
If held, Deadliar's Discharge does not cancel bullets until released, but provides invincibility anyway. This can be used to extend grazes.
Fossilmaiden always has a bad graze range. She can mitigate this somewhat by using Cloak invincibility to supergraze.
Using Minogame's charged main weapon (Forbidden Shell) will increase their grazing radius dramatically. Abuse this if you are playing Minogame.
- Combine with Nimbus Cluster Yellow for supergrazing.
Grazing with lower STELLA will decrease the Spirit gain rate from grazing (low STELLA also often makes needle bullets shorter).
- Around 25% of your grazing efficiency is lost if grazing with STELLA 9 instead of A – big loss!
Any death will still reduce your graze income regardless of STELLA because the graze rate is also modified by the SURVIVABILITY score of the current Segment.
- e.g. 3 deaths = 55% FINELINE for the remainder of the stage.

Inner Spirit Raising and Spirit Pooling (tick points)

Inner Spirit Raising is a mechanic that allows you to raise the kill value of targets by hitting them rapidly.
There is also a parallel, more traditional tick points mechanic, which is based on the same principles as Spirit Raising.

In order to use either system effectively, it's fundamental to find an appropriate hit rate/damage ratio.
When a projectile weapon is fired (i.e. one that produces "bullets"), an aura is generated around the player character which delivers many hits while dealing almost no damage. The closer the target is to the player, the denser the hits become. The following table lists the number of hits per second applied by main shot aura at very close range, excluding the bullets.

Executor	Aura hits/sec
Deadliar	420
Fossilmaiden	60
Minogame	380
Kagura (Moon Cradle)	210
Kagura (Ecliptic Chariot)	30
Kagura (Infernal Sabbath)	300
Kagura (Xanthez)	270

Supplementing shot auras with other weapons leads to diverging results. For example, Deadliar's main shot itself does not contribute a useful number of extra hits, whereas Minogame's more than doubles the total hit rate.
- Therefore for Spirit Raising purposes it's usually more productive for Deadliar to point his main shot away from the target, while Minogame has more reason to consider pointblanking underneath a target.
Characters with low hit rate auras need to focus on other tools, e.g. Fossilmaiden's orange lance subweapon.
- The hit count to Inner Spirit ratio of other weapons will also vary wildly. The only solution is experimentation (or copying someone else's strategies).
In order to raise the value of fragile zako, it's necessary to use the weakest attacks to avoid killing them too fast; for targets with invulnerable or regenerating parts where damage isn't a limitation, going all out to maximize overall hits is the clear line of play.
Hitting multiple targets simultaneously will enhance the raising efficiency for all of them.
Hits landed on non-essential parts of enemies can contribute to the value of the core too.
Many enemies are heavily damage resistant when first entering play, which is a prime opportunity to get lots of free hits in.
The more the Inner Spirit value of a target is raised, the more difficult it becomes to raise further.

Tick Points

Tick points are predominantly based on hit count like Spirit Raising, but the income rate scales exponentially with additional targets, and it suffers no falloff.
The number of pooled Spirits further scales by 1/24th of the total number of SLAVEs that have been UNCHAINed.
- For example, 1200 total UNCHAINed = +50 = 150% tick point income.
The number of effective hits is stored in a buffer which is emptied every 3 frames when the awarded Spirits are calculated. This implementation results in a bug where pooling more than 21.4 Spirits in a single interval will overflow the range and wrap around, awarding a negative value instead. This bug is mostly a concern for Moon Cradle who is vulnerable to it throughout Full Sequence Order runs.
A technical breakdown of tick point mechanics can be found in this post.

UNCHAIN

Killing MASTER enemies will give Spirits based on the number of SLAVEs attached to it when killed.
The amount of Spirits given is exponential based on how many slaves there are. Even killing one slave can decrease UNCHAIN Spirits by more than half in some cases, though overall you don’t gain many Spirits from UNCHAINing except on the S4 boss.
UNCHAINing is nevertheless very important as UNCHAINed enemies may drop Life Chips or produce revenge needles, in some cases leading to 1000+ FINELINE grazes. As mentioned in the section above, it also improves tick point rate.
Some enemies are worth much more by killing them without UNCHAINing them.
- Segment 3 Lead SEAGULL flocks are an example.

NUTCRACK (destructible bullets)

Not much to say. Try to destroy as many as possible with clever use of your weapons.
The largest NUTCRACK bonus comes from the S4 boss if both of its wings survive until past TIMER 211.
Try not to Discharge as it will cancel the bullets without giving you Spirits.

Running Spirits

"Interest" on your stage Spirit passively accumulated over time. Gaining more Spirits earlier in the stage = more profit.
- Try delaying an Extend to the beginning of the next Segment to gain more Running Spirits later (most noticeable on Segments 6 and 8).
Income rate is scaled by a factor determined from current STELLA level and a stage-specific value.
Does not apply to bosses, Segment 5 mid-stage, or the Segment 6 midboss zone.

Stage Clear Bonus

Gives you around 50 ~ 150 Spirits for most stages.
- Based on STELLA and the number of times you died during the stage. The formula is shown on the Segment end screen.
- SURVIVABILITY scores are 100, 90, 75, 55, 30, and 5, lowering with each death.
Clearing the Shrine gives you around 450.^?
Clearing the TLB will give you around 1000.^?
Overall, does not give a ton of Spirits but is a nice bonus.

Ingots

Killing bosses/some boss phases and certain cues within stages will cancel all bullets on screen into Ingots.
- Each worth 0.2 Spirits and 0.05 NECESSARY.
Also occurs after achieving a BREAKTHROUGH.
Sometimes you will want to optimize bullet cancels like in other STGs (cancel when screen is most dense).
With Deadliar and Fossilmaiden, you can use your Mistletoe to collect Ingots (and any other items).

The Last Present

Killing the final form of the Segment 7 boss near timeout will transfer a lump quantity of Spirits.
- Killing him on MEMORY TRANSFER... REMAIN 0 will grant you 345.6 Spirits.
- Killing him after or before REMAIN 0 will drastically reduce the bonus.
Use the BGM to accurately time it. The female voice with note of C is the perfect cue.
- TIMER 246.5

Shrine of Farewell

The Shrine of Farewell is often looked at as a "bonus stage" in regular survival play, which serves to give some lives back in the form of crystals and get the player back on their feet.
However, it is extremely important for Spirits, as playing the Shrine perfectly will reward 424 crystals to the player, with each crystal having a value of 1/200 of the player's Spirits before the Shrine, enabling the player to amplify their score by up to 2.12x.
This requires good TERRA management to optimally reach the Shrine after Segment 7.
Conversely, it is possible to exit with a net loss in Spirits if you do not collect at least 200 crystals.

Try not to die or Discharge too often in the Shrine.
Speed kill every single enemy you see.
- Remember the patterns and when you can damage the enemy efficiently.
The calculation for CRYSTALLIZE is still unknown, but the following is known.
- Having anything below STELLA level A will reduce your CRYSTALLIZE gain.
- Kaname Stones & boss' 1st and 2nd attacks are worth 18 CRYSTALLIZE.
  - Bombing a Kaname Stone will invalidate its CRYSTALLIZE.
- Each boss' 3rd attack is worth 36 CRYSTALLIZE.
  - Taking a hit or bombing in the 3rd attack will heavily affect your CRYSTALLIZE gain due to high value potential.
If you are playing Deadliar, Fossilmaiden, or Kagura2, going to the top of the screen while your option is deployed at the bottom will cause all of the crystals to fall into the option and be collected, enabling the full 2.12x Spirit multiplier.
- Other characters will need to manually collect crystals. This is quite random and varies in difficulty between characters as they have different collection ranges. A 1.70x multipler (340 crystals) is about the best result that can be hoped for.^?
You don't need to score/milk in this stage unless you are really really comfortable with it.
- The two milkable patterns are VIRGINAL ORDER on TEMPERAMENT-NIL (by grazing the needles), and DESPERATE ANNULUS on AL4TH (by bombing and using aura on the red blobs she shoots out to gain spirits and increase her inner spirit value). These combined give out a few thousand Spirits but cost a lot of precious time.

Destroying the TLB repeatedly

Destroying the TLB will give you 7 Spirits each time, and destroying it 7 times will increase its value by 7.
The total Spirits gained from the TLB is represented by the following formula.

 Σ[n=1,y] 7 * floor((n/7) + 1)

Where y denotes the times you destroyed the TLB.

For example destroying the TLB 79 times (kill value shown as 70) will be around 3479 Spirits.

Token Scoring Strategy

Token Values

Values of each Token item.^[2]

Item	Decimal value	Fraction of 1 Token	Internal value¹
LUNA Crystal (0)	0.05000	1/20	600
LUNA Crystal (1)	0.05750	~1/17.3	690
LUNA Crystal (2)	0.08050	~1/12.4	966
LUNA Crystal (3)	0.11883	~1/8.41	1426
LUNA Crystal (4)	0.17233	~1/5.8	2068
LUNA Crystal (5)	0.24116	~1/4.14	2894
LUNA Crystal (6)	0.32533	~1/3.07	3904
Frozen Crystal	1.50000	3/2	18000
LUNA Droplet (stage)	0.16225	~1/6	1947
LUNA Droplet (boss)	0.04050	~1/25	486
Reliquia	0.08333	1/12	1000

¹ Token score = internal value / 12000.

Sources of Freeze Cancels (FSO)

For multi-part or CHAINed enemies, it can be assumed that the destroying the core or MASTER is what triggers the cancel.

Stage	Enemy name	Number available
1L	COFFIN	2
1L	Rex Cavalier (wings)	4
1B	COFFIN	3
1B	Quiet Minstrel (core)	2
2L	UNNAMED 452 (Sinistar)	1
2L	UNNAMED 447 (small stone)	5
2L	UNNAMED 447 (large stone)	2
2L	Scarlet Queen (talon)	2
3B	C-MOON	2
3B	Sunken Bishop (arm)	2
4	SWALLOW'S NEST	4
4	URCHIN	2
4	UNNAMED 450 (SECTORs 20-31)	16
4	UNNAMED 443 (SECTOR 32)	Respawning
5	KAREIDOSCOPE	Respawning
7	UNNAMED 499 (MASTER on left)	3
7	UNNAMED 500 (MASTER on right)	3
Shrine	Kaname Stone	4
8	UNNAMED 389 (giant crab)	Respawning

Boss Token Decay

Stage Token score falls continuously during boss fights.
Budget your time spent on bosses to minimize the loss. Speedkill any bosses that aren't going to produce useful amounts of Tokens.
The decay per frame can be represented as:^[2]

 (Token / 300000)+0.00025

For example at 4307 Tokens you will lose 1 every ~1.14 seconds.

Segment Specific Strategy

Segment 1 Behind

TBA
Boss: Quiet Minstrel
- The boss begins moving around after destroying its core twice. Time this to ensure it moves in a consistent way and doesn't wall you.

Segment 2 Behind

TBA
Boss: Glorious Symbol

Segment 3 Behind

TBA
Boss: Sunken Bishop

Segment 1 Lead

TBA
Boss: Rex Cavalier (Aerial Form)
- Avoid completely destroying the boss' wings for about 50 seconds and some zako will show up that will drop life chips.

Segment 2 Lead

TBA
Boss: Scarlet Queen
- Scarlet Queen has a multitude of parts to dismantle, and which parts she has can dramatically change her attack pattern. They can be split up into talons, the two singular parts down below that fire blue energy blasts; wings, the multi-segmented side pieces that can be SEALed; and the Queen's Throne, the small knobby piece at the top that attempts to shoot you down when you get too close.
- The fight starts with Scarlet Queen swooping in from the top left down to the center bottom. She will be releasing bullets from the get-go so try to not let her push you into them. As long as all pieces are alive she will stay in this basic pattern, shooting a small number of bullets from her wings and attempting to wall you with her talons.
- Both talons destroyed, wings symmetrical (a piece is either alive or dead on both sides, no mismatches): Scarlet Queen will shoot many grazeable needle bullets from her wings. This pattern is static and worth a lot of FINELINE bonus so it's worth doing for score. Moving too high up the screen during this pattern will SEAL some of her wing pieces and reduce the number of needles shot. Stay near the bottom.
  - The second talon should be destroyed at roughly TIMER 159.5, between the second and third fan shot, for the optimal sequence.
- Both talons destroyed, wings non-symmetrical:Her wings will perform two different attacks, depending on whether they are up or down. While up, they will shoot a stream of arrowhead bullets aimed at you. While down, it is instead small circular bullets aimed straight down. If you can remain above the boss and close enough to one wing to SEAL it entirely, this pattern is a simple dodge. Note that even if the wings are symmetrical, the above pattern will eventually end and lead to this one.
- One or both wings left with no SEALable feather pieces (talon status to get this pattern needs to be confirmed): The remains of Scarlet Queen's wing will start shooting homing missiles at you. Pretty mediocre attack.
- Queen's Throne: Anytime you approach the Queen's Throne it will attempt to shoot you with small circular bullets. This piece is quite hard to hit, but destroying it drops several Life Chips so it is worthwhile. Note that the Throne being alive or dead has no impact on any other attacks the boss has.
- All subparts destroyed (excluding Throne): Scarlet Queen will attempt to wall you with arrowheads while shooting small circulars inside the bullet corral. Reaching this pattern always causes a New Stella Relic to drop, in case you need to increase your rank. Destroying the main piece causes a bullet cancel so try to make it profitable.
- Boss destroyed, rank high (7 or 8, exact value needs testing): Spirit Kernel form. The boss's soul will attempt to destroy you with fast and dense patterns. This phase lasts 16 seconds of consists of 4 attacks performed in rapid succession. Destroying the boss will cause another bullet cancel and a Revive token to drop (useful if you are not already life capped). As the boss's final pattern is the densest, it is worthwhile to delay killing it til the last second.

Segment 3 Lead

TBA

Segment 4

TBA
Boss: Rusted Dragon
- Rusted Dragon is considered a step up in difficulty for first time players, as it is a lot more aggressive than the bosses from the Behind Segments. However, a lot of its difficulty can be mitigated through knowledge and practice.
- Before the fight even starts, if you have 2 lives of less Rusted Dragon will not appear at all, ending the stage early. This may save new players from a difficult fight if they are struggling with the start of the game.
- In the event you do fight Rusted Dragon, it starts the fight by quickly swooping in and firing mostly static walls of bullets.
- One note about this static phase is that fairly early in it, Rusted Dragon will fire large elliptical bullets from the left and right ends of the screen. Destroying these offers the largest NUTCRACK bonus in the game.
- Rusted Dragon's two wings can be attacked and destroyed, and have 2 health bars each. Emptying the first bar offsets the wing a bit, erases the boss's shots for several seconds (similar to a discharge), and makes its initial attack pattern more complicated.
- Destroying a wing a second time will fully remove it. If this is the first wing destroyed, it will fire an absurdly dense burst of red elliptical bullets that you can milk for a NUTCRACK bonus. If it's the second wing it will release some Clambons and move to the final phase of the fight.
- The faster the two wings are destroyed, the earlier you will reach the lucrative final attack in this phase.
- Rusted Dragon will release Clambons, and replace them with another set when they are destroyed. Clambons have varying attacks, dependent on their size and how many are in this particular wave. Each attack is fairly simple.
- Most of the Clambon formations are either fixed-position or manipulatable predictably with practice. An exception is the chaotic movement of the small Clambon swarms.
- Rusted Dragon itself will mostly attempt to track you vertically and release bullets straight down. Its movement pattern tries to alternate sides 4 times, then go to the middle, then repeat.
- Eventually, Rusted Dragon will start to release UNCHAINable Clambon trains from the top, and small Clambons from the bottom. The UNCHAIN target is the most valuable but make sure to kill the Clambons as quickly as possible.
- It's also important to keep Rusted Dragon's HP high if you are milking this boss, as it will take lots of incidental damage from stray shots.
- Rusted Dragon will begin its final attack after several sets of trains. it will stop moving and release dense random bursts of bullets. Very large Clambon trains will swoop in from the left and right.
  - These trains have an UNCHAIN bonus of 19 which is a very high value. Milking this boss involves maximizing these train kills and their UNCHAIN bonus, only killing the boss at the last second.
  - Kill trains on the side they spawn on. Once they pass into the opposite half of the screen, the lead Clambons on the train will start to move offscreen and reduce your UNCHAIN bonus.
  - Rusted Dragon's attacks are mostly random and will need to be sight read to find safespots and paths to the other side of the screen.
  - Staying near the middle of the stage will make this phase considerably easier to survive, but will cause a lot of accidental damage to the boss. Moving from side to side is more challenging but will preserve the boss' HP.
  - Discharges that can be used without damaging the boss or the Clambons, such as Dead Liar at minimum SOL, Fossil Maiden's Bacillus Cloak, and Xanthez/Kagura4's beam, can be helpful for safety here.
- Make sure to kill Rusted Dragon at the last possible second. The bullets it fires become more dense as the time reaches 0 and killing Rusted Dragon will cause a bullet cancel. Missing this cancel will undo some of the work spent milking Clambons.
- If you happen to destroy Rusted Dragon without destroying either wing, it will drop a Revive Token. However, this is not very useful.

Segment 5

TBA
Boss: Perpetual Calendar
- Fate Control: In Perpetual Calendar's final attack, if you destroy all its turrets twice without killing the main core, you will unlock a secret attack. In this form Perpetual Calendar will instantly respawn when destroyed, and give you 2 Terra every time you destroy it. This will last until the fight times out and is a vital part of controlling your Terra level.
  - The time limit on the final form is influenced by how quickly you progress past the other bosses.
  - The attacks during the secret phase become more aggressive with each time that you destroy the boss.

Segment 6

TBA
Boss: Apostles of the Seed (Dawn & Dusk)
- First of all, Dawn is the red one and Dusk is "bluish". Keep this in mind because they are very different from each other.
- The percentage in the middle of the screen is their combined health percentage. Their phases are dependent on this number so refer to it often.
- Sometimes they will have a glowing runic circle around them. This circle strongly reduces damage they take from all sources. You can avoid using resources on them during this time or you can use their increased resistance to control their HP totals more effectively.
- Phase 1: This phase starts off with a wave cannon attack as they both swoop in from the sides. This phase is static; they will merely shift up and down and fire some simple waves of bullets.
- There are two ways to end this first phase: destroy all 8 of their limb launchers (the SEALable bumps) or push their combined HP total under 70% (which then destroys the limb launchers automatically). Score players may want to use this easier phase to damage them close to the breakpoint to raise their Spirit values and then move on to destroy the launchers.
- Phase 2: The Apostles will take turns trying to overwhelm you with fast attacks. Each Apostle uses 1 of 4 unique attacks here, chosen randomly(?).
- Dawn:
  - Dawn will fire large electric shots randomly. These will travel a medium distance then stop and expand. Culminates in an even larger bullet that expands into a giant starburst. This ones about reaction times.
  - Dawn will attempt to chase you down and hit you with a melee attack. This attack will happen 3 times in quick succession, and every melee attack also releases some bullet walls to try and corner you. Try to keep movements small so you can pass through these.
  - Dawn will appear at the left or right edge of the screen, then fire a twister of bullets and move to the other side. Some small circular bullets will also be aimed at you. If you hug the far wall from Dawn's starting position and keep your Suppression Radius up to erase the small bullets, this attack can't hit you.
  - Dawn will appear in the middle of the screen, fire a burst of extremely homing bullets, then immediately fly away. This attack can be SEALed by being close to Dawn when it lifts its arms, however Dusk has many attacks that start by punishing players in the middle, so dodging it is best.
- Dusk:
  - Dusk will harmlessly float at the top of the screen, while walls of plasma rain down from above. Walls can have an opening to the left, right, or in the middle. If you are above Dusk here this attack is harmless.
  - Dusk will float high on the screen, and fire arrowheads and teardrops at you, while simultaneously trying to wall you with arcs of electricity. This attack is difficult and relies on making quick decisions to move past bullets safely. If your Suppression Radius activates during this you will likely die as the arrowheads will slow down.
  - Dusk will teleport to the middle of the screen horizontally, directly above you, and fire a large beam. Being under this is naturally fatal. Some bullet walls will be released at the same time, meaning after you dodge the beam you will need to move through these lanes. This attack happens 4 times in a row.
  - Dusk will fire a small random burst of fireballs at you. This burst will speed up over a few seconds and end in a 3 pronged stream aimed right at you. Dodge the random bit and then stream the attack once it reaches its climax.
- This phase makes up the majority of the fight, as both ways to exit it will take a long time to achieve. Learning how to deal with these attacks will give players the best chance of surviving (and/or scoring) this fight.
- Team Attack Phase: This phase has two requirements. Both Apostles must be alive, and their combined HP total must be under 20%. If an Apostle dies before their total is under 20%, this and the next phase will be skipped. Be aware of this.
  - Dusk should be brought to no lower than 33% life during phase 1 to ensure Dawn enters this phase at under 5%.
- The Apostles will fly in on opposite ends of the screen from each other, then tether together with electricity.
- While tethered, they will spin in one direction slowly, or spin in the opposite direction quickly. The order these happen in is random.
- Aside from the tether itself being deadly, the Dawn will fire destructible elliptical bullets at you, while Dusk will summon bubble-shaped SURX adds to bump into you.
  - The tether is grazable, so using shot during this phase should be avoided for score purposes.
- If you thought you could avoid the tether by following one of the Apostles, you can't. They constantly fire streams of bullets from their sides to prevent this.
- This phase lasts 14 seconds, or will end early if an Apostle dies. If it does not end early, it goes to the next phase.
- Self Destruct Phase: The Apostle with lower HP will destroy its own limbs and attempt to kill you with a final desperation attack.
- This attack is different for each Apostle. Dawn will fly toward the top and attempt to rain down large, eye-searing electricity attacks. Dusk will fly to the middle and fire random bursts of exotic bullets that look like clubs.
  - Dawn's attack is completely harmless above it.
- This phase only lasts 10 seconds, and timing it out will cause the Apostle to fully self destruct, preventing you from getting score from it.
- During this phase, the Apostle will have a supercharged version of their shield on. This blocks the vast majority of damage from all attacks. Entering this phase with more than ~5-6% HP will make it very difficult to get value from this Apostle.
- Final Phase: The surviving Apostle will use a final, simple attack.
- These are once again dependent on the Apostle. Dawn will perform a spiraling attack using the same club bullets Dusk just used. Dusk will attempt to wall you with a fixed + aimed pattern.
  - Be cautious of being clipped by the tails of the aimed yellow bullets during Dusk's attack. Focus on avoiding them cleanly.
- Killing this final Apostle will finally net you a bullet cancel. As Dusk fires many more bullets during this final attack than Dawn, you should set up the fight to end with Dawn as the weaker Apostle. This mostly matters for scoring but as ingots also decrease the Necessary counter survival players may also appreciate this.
- If left alive long enough, the Apostles will use a second attack for a bit before moving back to the first one. Dusk will attempt to kill players beneath with a static pattern. Dawn's attack here is currently unknown.
- Survive this phase, and you will finally have banished the Apostles of the Seed, one of the longest and most arduous bosses in the game...
- Post-Boss Waves: Except you're not done yet. Several waves of enemies will spawn once the bosses are dead, and this lasts until the real end of the stage.
- The good news is the wave spawns and the bullets they fire are static. This phase can be routed to the player's content.
- If the bulky Unnamed 335 enemies are left alive long enough, they will fire a very dense of spread of elliptical bullets in front of them. This can be used to earn a small amount of extra Spirit.
- The large fighter jet looking Unnamed 336 will behave similarly, except it launches landmine like Unnamed 337. These are worth extra Spirit as well, however Unnamed 337 will fly away after releasing these. This means you need to have very high damage available to make use of this.
- This phase ends with a large streaming pattern. The end of this phase has a small bullet cancel, so try not to bomb during it. Additionally, the enemies fly in from the top right, which tilts their bullets to the left a bit. As such, you should stream from left to right rather than the other way around. Doing it the other way will eventually wall you. Once the cancel happens, this Segment is finally over.

Segment 7

TBA
Boss: Rex Cavalier (Land Form)
- Staying above Rex Cavalier's head ("out of the conversation sphere") will dodge all attacks for the first chunk of the fight.
- Rex Cavalier's health will slowly regenerate over time. This continues until TIMER 130 where it regenerates in a burst, then stops.
- All of Rex Cavalier's parts regenerate when destroyed.
  - In addition to the value of the parts, damaging or destroying the parts raises the Inner Spirit value of the core. This may be more or less score-efficient than raising its Inner Spirits through direct attacks depending on which EXECUTOR you're playing.
- Killing Rex Cavalier transforms it into an invincible secondary form (UNNAMED 394) which will attack in dense spinning patterns until the timer runs out.
- When the boss timer runs out, Rex Cavalier will switch to its final Spirit Kernel form. If it was in its secondary form, it will additionally drop a Revive Token.
  - The base Spirit value of the Spirit Kernel is dependent on the value of the boss core when it was destroyed. If the Spirit Kernel phase is reached through timeout, the Spirit Kernel inherits the core's value + 20 as a consolation prize.
- Kill the Spirit Kernel at LIMIT 0 for the THE LAST PRESENT bonus. There is a some room for waiting on timing this - don't do it too early.
- DANGER: If time runs out on its Spirit Kernel form and you have only one life left, the game will end prematurely with the "Spirit Overload" ending.

Segment 8

TBA
Boss: Unnamed 290/HellSinker
- The goal of this boss is to raise its Satisfaction meter to level 3. Doing non-bomb damage to it raises it while not hitting it for awhile will cause it to fall (slowly).
  - Hit the boss many times with rapid attacks to fill the meter. Bomb/Discharge damage will cause it to fall very rapidly.
  - The Satisfaction level only matters at the moment the sequence ends (TIMER ~389). As the meter can be easily filled during the long penultimate pattern, SOLAR PLEXUS, Discharge can be used relatively freely before then. (For example, to get into position before grazing RHODOPHILIA)
  - STELLA lost during the middle non-scoring-critical patterns can be recovered by collecting LUNA droplets en masse during INTEGRAL FORCE. However, letting lots of droplets fall off the screen will cause STELLA to plummet instead, so make sure not to kill archives indiscriminately.
  - Deadliar is capable of an advanced trick where held Discharge invincibility is used to supergraze the final QUASAR pattern, and then refill the empty Satisfaction meter with level 2 subweapon damage at the last second.
- Each pattern during this phase is static. They can be practiced in Segment Location. Use this to your advantage.
- Whenever an attack during this phase ends (based solely on time), the boss will drop 6 Life Chips. This can be used to gain a couple extra lives/Immortality bonuses.
- Based on your Satisfaction level at the end of this boss, an extra boss will be spawned.
Boss: GARLAND
- Requires Satisfaction level 3. This boss can potentially lead to the TLB and the true end.
- Your goal is to fill its health bar to max by dealing damage. This will unlock the TLB.
- Beyond this mechanic, GARLAND is invincible (but still should be shot for score).
- This phase will last 102 seconds.
- In the initial "rings" patterns only, damaging GARLAND will produce Spirits. After these patterns, damaging it will only produce Spirits after the meter has been filled.
- The giant green lasers can be used to damage GARLAND if the white hexagonal shielding pieces are destroyed.
- In this part of the game only, enemy Misteltoe bullets can be cancelled. These bullets will cancel into Life Chips rather than Ingots. GARLAND will do this three times, at LIMIT 80, LIMIT 07, and LIMIT 00. Keep as many of these bullets on the screen as possible to earn your last extends of the run.
Boss: Lost Property 771
- The TLB.
- Like GARLAND, completely invincible, but it's worth shooting it.
- This boss is pure survival, and lasts around 74 seconds.

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